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Weaver Wednesday [111]: Yellow-legged Weaver

Weaver Wednesday

The Yellow-legged Weaver Ploceus flavipes is black with distinctive dull yellow legs and feet. There is some green gloss on the tips of the feathers of the crown, back and breast giving a slightly scaly effect - these areas are wholly black in Vieillot's Black Weaver and Maxwell's Black Weaver. The belly and undertail-coverts of the Yellow-legged Weaver are dark brown, and the sexes are similar.

The Yellow-legged Weaver is restricted to lowland forest in eastern DR Congo (see map below, based on Birds of Africa).
There are no subspecies. The Yellow-legged Weaver is rare, and very poorly known. It has been suggested that it could represent occasional hybrids, but recent DNA work suggests that it is a valid species (presented at the 2012 PAOC).

The Yellow-legged Weaver inhabits the canopy of dense lowland forest. Only 9 specimens are known, the last from 1959; two sight records from Okapi Faunal Reserve (1990 and 1994).

The Yellow-legged Weaver probably feeds on insects, and small caterpillars have been recorded in its diet.

Nothing is known about breeding in the Yellow-legged Weaver.

There are no PHOWN records for the Yellow-legged Weaver (see PHOWN summary). Be the first to submit a record of this species! Submit any weaver nest records to PHOWN (PHOtos of Weaver Nests) via the Virtual Museum upload site.